1. "ntl do not offer services outside its cable network.
However, we recommend Virgin.net who offer a range of Internet
options including broadband with no 12 month contract.
All you need is a BT line."

2. "The postcode you have entered is outside the Telewest cabled area. Unfortunately, this means it is not possible to offer you any of our services at present.

However, you can now take advantage of great value Broadband & Internet services from Virgin. Find out more by visiting their website or clicking the links below."

1. "ntl do not offer services outside its cable network.
However, we recommend Virgin.net who offer a range of Internet
options including broadband with no 12 month contract.
All you need is a BT line."

2. "The postcode you have entered is outside the Telewest cabled area. Unfortunately, this means it is not possible to offer you any of our services at present.

However, you can now take advantage of great value Broadband & Internet services from Virgin. Find out more by visiting their website or clicking the links below."

If your line has only been tagged as being capable of 576 in the great Openreach database, that's all you get from any of the non-LLU ISPs.

Your best bet is to see whether you can get the router stats for your line attenuation and noise and, if they suggest you should be able to get the higher speeds, start asking to see if you can be reclassified. There's usually some advice over at adslguide as to how to do this (and a moderator who can usually actually make it happen )

Check on Samknows.com whether your exchange as been unbundled. You might get better speeds from one of them - and usually, a better price.

BT have improved their offering lately though including Openzone minutes etc so if you can get the service improved, it might not be such a bad idea staying with them.

1. "ntl... we recommend Virgin.net ...... Telewest ... you can now take advantage of great value Broadband & Internet services from Virgin."

Click to expand...

Hmmm... so, they're both suggesting a switch to Virgin! Sounds like a conspiracy to me!! Of course ntl:telewest now own Virgin Mobile!!

I've just ditched Tiscali / BT and gone back to Telewest, one word "flawless" and believe me I can feel your frustration; within a couple of hours of the Tiscali switch coming into play I was on the phone to them with problems! Good riddance I say and good luck in your search for a new ISP.

Most ISPs get their broadband connection from BT, so changing to Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange (or whatever they are called today), for example, might not gain you anything. On the other hand, you might give them a call, tell them about the situation, and check with them.

And with the " 8Mb per second", yes, it is quite possible that a few hundred meters make a lot of difference. Max speed is proportional to the inverse of the distance from the exchange, and "up to" means "guaranteed not faster than".

Could be some slight damage of the phone cable somewhere on the way to your use, then only BT can fix it anyway.

I had virgin broadband and although they were generally good when i had it, i MUST warn you that the 'no 12 month contract' is in my opinion false advertising because if you leave BEFORE the 12 months is up (which is what happened to me) they charge you a 50 quid penalty and then shoots 'its all in the small print, can't you read?' at you. so if you are looking for less than 12 months, unless you are going to take virgin with you to your new place, i won't recommand it.

i am on tiscali right now, amd am only getting less than 1 mb/s even though samknows.com? says i can recieve up to 5mb and the line is max? enabled. so i am looking into going to home choice for the telly (bad experience with ntl) any one using that one right now?

1. "ntl do not offer services outside its cable network.
However, we recommend Virgin.net who offer a range of Internet
options including broadband with no 12 month contract.
All you need is a BT line."

2. "The postcode you have entered is outside the Telewest cabled area. Unfortunately, this means it is not possible to offer you any of our services at present.

However, you can now take advantage of great value Broadband & Internet services from Virgin. Find out more by visiting their website or clicking the links below."

Click to expand...

Im on Telewest now is absolutely brilliant (but its DSL - not what you want). However Im looking to move house soon and the places I am looking at (just down the road) cant get Telewest they just keep referring me to Virgin. It just doesnt sit well with me. Virgin have shown me nothing to convince me they are any good. I had a dial up connection way back when the internet was in black and white and I used Virgin then but I never had confidence it them.

I dont like the idea of a phone line being used its just a pain in the ass. A dedicated cable is much better in my opinion but it is quite limiting as I have said.

I have 4mb line and I just ran the Speakeasy - New York test and I got 3874kbps which is excellent compared to my workplace that are paying Bulldog for 8mb but only receive 4mb (when it works)

If your line has only been tagged as being capable of 576 in the great Openreach database, that's all you get from any of the non-LLU ISPs.

Your best bet is to see whether you can get the router stats for your line attenuation and noise and, if they suggest you should be able to get the higher speeds, start asking to see if you can be reclassified. There's usually some advice over at adslguide as to how to do this (and a moderator who can usually actually make it happen )

Check on Samknows.com whether your exchange as been unbundled. You might get better speeds from one of them - and usually, a better price.

BT have improved their offering lately though including Openzone minutes etc so if you can get the service improved, it might not be such a bad idea staying with them.

Click to expand...

Hey.

Can I just ask a couple of questions. I'm on a fairly **** real speed 150kbps down, 30kbps up ADSL BT connection. I looked on Samknows.com, and found some stuff.

It says my exchange is ADSL Max enabled (whatever that means), and that Bulldog have done loop unbundling, Carphone warehouse are doing it on 31st of August, and Be are doing it on 31st December.

Does this mean I will be able to receive faster services from Bulldog/CPW/Be (soon)?

Can I just ask a couple of questions. I'm on a fairly **** real speed 150kbps down, 30kbps up ADSL BT connection. I looked on Samknows.com, and found some stuff.

It says my exchange is ADSL Max enabled (whatever that means), and that Bulldog have done loop unbundling, Carphone warehouse are doing it on 31st of August, and Be are doing it on 31st December.

Does this mean I will be able to receive faster services from Bulldog/CPW/Be (soon)?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

If its Max enabled you should in theory be able to get 8MB. Of course that all depends on whether you are close enough to your exchange and what kind of usage your exchange goes through (e.g. if it has lots of people who use P2P apps, download ridiculously large files constantly etc. then your speed will suffer more). ISPs try to get around that with vicious caps, so make sure you know how much you use before you jump.

Does this mean I will be able to receive faster services from Bulldog/CPW/Be (soon)?

Click to expand...

Yes but a lot will be dependent on how far you are from the exchange - and how long the 'loop' from the exchange to you is - and that's before you get to the ISP's contention on the exchange etc

See if you can get your router stats on line attenuation and signal to noise ratio. You want low attenuation and high signal to noise - that will give you an idea of line quality which should give you some idea how how max any of those operators will give you. I'm with Be* and get about 18MB

It says my exchange is ADSL Max enabled (whatever that means), and that Bulldog have done loop unbundling, Carphone warehouse are doing it on 31st of August, and Be are doing it on 31st December.
Does this mean I will be able to receive faster services from Bulldog/CPW/Be (soon)?

Click to expand...

Hi XIII,
To answer your question in full, I'm sure there are other people out there aksing the very same question.
First we need to learn what 'ADSL MAX' really is:

Quote

MAX is a rate adaptive service and the actual speed that a user will experience will be dependent on the line length, line quality and other factors. It is quite possible for users in close geographical proximity to receive services with different speeds.

When a user upgrades to ADSL Max the system will attempt to synchronise the user modem/router and the BT exchange DSLAM to determine the maximum stable rate (MSR). ADSL Max is rate adaptive - the BT system will record upper and lower line rates. Data will be collected for a MINIMUM of 10 DAYS before the lower line rate is rounded down and to become the MSR. The Fault Threshold Rate (FTR) will be set at a level 30% below MSR. There is likely to be some alteration to the line speed whilst the BT system undergoes 'training' to find the MSR. Once the MSR is set this will be the benchmark level for the lifetime of the connection.

Click to expand...

This means that if you upgrade to ADSL MAX it is possible to receieve a increase of your upload/download speed but its not going to be a huge jump.

The major factors that dictate your connection speed are line loss and line noise. For the most part you can not do anything about this, the only thing you can do (the OP should take note as i feel it could be his/her problem) is apply good practise to your physical connection to your phoneline; thus limiting any further line loss/line noise.

These good practises are:
Connect your modem to the MAIN BT SOCKET, any extenstions will add to the line noise/line loss. Make sure good quality filters that are not damaged are used on EVERY SINGLE socket in your house that have something plugged into them (ie skybox, house alarm, etc).

In regards to the LLU from BE and TalkTalk, your phone line will still be subject to the same line loss/line noise. They are using the very same phone line as BT. There is a chance they could increase your speed but i doubt it.

Really interested to see that you recommend Virgin. I used them because I was under the impression that they didn't have a minimum period contract period. Infact they might as well have one because they charge £50 if you cancel - which strikes me as a cheek when they sell themselves so heavily on the no minimum contract thing.

In the end though, I'm afraid I just got fed up with their customer services department. They seemed to have lots of bugs on their main web page...so while I should have been able to chat with them (trying that always always resulted in a message telling me that an operator wasn't available) and the email option didn't work. The latter now seems to have been fixed but I haven't been impressed by the quality of the replies. As I'm writing this, I'm also thinking 'gosh, I've had to get in touch with them a lot - and I shouldn't have needed to!).

So...I had to deal with them by phone. I have rarely dealt with such a surly bunch of people in my life! I don't think I ever spoke to anyone who wasn't insolent...which is not a word I use often!

I'm afraid that in the end it p***** me off so much that I switched to Pipex who were so much better.

josh.thomas said:

1. "ntl do not offer services outside its cable network.
However, we recommend Virgin.net who offer a range of Internet
options including broadband with no 12 month contract.
All you need is a BT line."

2. "The postcode you have entered is outside the Telewest cabled area. Unfortunately, this means it is not possible to offer you any of our services at present.

However, you can now take advantage of great value Broadband & Internet services from Virgin. Find out more by visiting their website or clicking the links below."

Go with Zen. I seriously recommend them. They will give you the speed they say they'll give you and they have 1 month contracts. That and they are excellent - never drops the connection at all and I've been with them for over a year.

I'm surprised by the problems that people have had with Virgin - perhaps I'm one of the lucky ones!

I've been with them for 10 months now, and never had a problem with them whatsoever. Only time I've had to speak to the helpine was when I moved house, and they were very courteous and helpful! They even went as far as ringing me up on my moving in day and asking me if the connection was successful in the new house (it was!)

The whole "charging £50 if you leave in the first 12 months thing" isn't false advertising, as its clearly stated on the website, and considering a lot of companies won't even offer something akin to this, its not actually that bad a cost to move ISP.

So I would recommend Virgin based on my experience of them.

The other ISP I would look at would be ZEN - the only reason I didn't sign up with them initially is they couldn't connect me at my previous address. They have fantastic Mac support, and my workmate who is with them says they're fantastic.

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